Durban - This week, at least three KwaZulu-Natal schools reported incidents of ancestral callings. On Friday, PT Alarms reported an incident at the PR Pather School.
"Pupils have been dismissed. Those pupils displaying strange behaviour are being attended to by PT Ambulance Medics. Pupils appear to be displaying movements resembling a seizure. Medics are attempting to calm the affected pupils," the report read.
In Reservoir Hills on Thursday, learners at Dr AD Lazarus Secondary School were dismissed after several learners began experiencing ancestral callings.
In a letter to parents, the school asked for parents' sensitivity in the matter, adding that they were taking every precaution to ensure the safety of learners.
In Pietermaritzburg, learners at Dunveria Secondary also experienced callings. According to reports, children were vomiting and some fainted. The school's management said a cleansing would be undertaken at the school.
"Ancestral calling is when the ancestors make a call on an individual to become a sangoma or a diviner. This occurs if one of the family members who have lived before was a sangoma or a diviner and that spirit wants to make a member of the family a sangoma or diviner," explained University of KwaZulu-Natal cultural expert, Professor Sihawukele Ngubane.
But he said a group of children cannot experience a calling at the same time.
"It is possible that it is an evil spirit that is moving around the school that causes the children to make howling noises. There is no way to describe it in English but in isiZulu, we call it 'ukuhayiza' which is related to another term, 'isipoliyane' when a spirit enters the wrong person. This might have happened at school but when you are called, you are called to train as a sangoma because it is an inheritance. You inherit from your family's lineage," he said.
Ngubane said sometimes a call can cause a person to have dreams and visions at night that interrupt their sleep. Some get severe headaches and when they seek help to cure the headache, they are not cured unless they seek help from a sangoma.
"A sangoma will tell you that this is not an ordinary illness but is caused by your ancestors then they can recommend that you undergo training. But if you are pre-occupied with something, some ancestors may be lenient if you perform a ritual by pleading with the ancestors.
“A diplomatic way of doing this is to first accept the calling and then plead with the ancestors that they give you time and then you can start your training," he said.
Ngubane said an ancestral calling simply put means that, "you are possessed with ancestral spirits."
Spokesperson for the Department of Education in KZN, Kwazi Mthethwa, called on people to be understanding when this happens.
"Teachers need to appreciate that there is cultural diversity in our society. Cultural and spiritual calling is one sensitive subject that should be handled with all the dignity it deserves. Under no circumstances will we as the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal discriminate according to culture, religion, or heritage in our schools," he said.
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